The Guardian inspired me to take the blog international this week. This editorial criticizes the EU for not taking a firmer stance against Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who has introduced press gag legislation in an attempt to silence criticism of the Italian government. I chose this topic not to criticize either the EU or Italy, but to reflect on the situation.
As the article states, Prime Minister Berlusconi already controlled approximately 80% of Italian television channels without this law. Criticism of his regime was unlikely to begin with, but now he feels the need to make sure it is impossible.
The article criticizes the EU for characterizing this action as a national issue (and therefore none of the EU’s business), but it is the comments following the article that hold a larger issue. What about the Italian people? How do they feel about their media being at least heavily influenced, if not controlled, by government leaders with great interests in which information reaches the public? If the Italian people do not have all of the relevant political information, they cannot make informed decisions at the polls, but do they care?
Do we care? Or maybe a better question is do a majority of Americans care about having all of the relevant information? One of our responsibilities as librarians is to educate the public about why the freedom of speech is so important. This situation illustrates why very well. If you do not exercise your freedom of speech, and do not act as a watchdog to make sure the government is not trying to chip away at freedoms, you may very well lose them.
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We should care because limiting our choices as consumers will limit our ability to make informed decisions as citizens. I work in the newspaper industry, where there has been tremendous consolidation in the last two years. Some industry analysts predict that only the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal will survive a newspapers. The electronic industry is dominated by Time -Warner at CNN, General Electric at NBC, and Rupert Murdoch at Fox. New services have drastically cut their investigative staffs. When we start losing investigative journalists, government and corporate officials are no longer accountable. If no one in authority is accountable then democracy and intellectual freedom are threatened.
ReplyDeleteBill- Thanks for your comments. When you say there's a prediction that only the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal will survive, do you mean those will be the only newspapers with national circulation, or does that prediction foresee the demise of all local newspapers?
ReplyDeleteHave news services cut their investigative staffs because investigative journalists are more expensive, or because they have found that people are not as interested in investigative reports?
After reading your blog I am reminded how fortunate we our to leave in a country that allows its citizens the right to express our opinion and access any idea that we want.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't imagine what it would be like to live in such a censored world. Could you imagine what it would like to be a librarian in this environment. "Here are your choices of book to read" pointing towards all government approved reading material. How depressing.
Do the Italians care? You tell me; they re-elected him after booting his party from power. I can't faintly imagine voting to have the powerful man in the country be the man who also owns the media, but I'm not Italian.
ReplyDeleteThis has come up in other threads on our class' blogs, that even though we often use the shorthand "liberal" to describe Western/Northern European countries, they are much more open to explicit curtailing of freedom of speech and religious exercise than we are.
That being said, sometimes it seems like our democratic values are flagging, as well.
Regarding discussions upthread, my understanding is that, as newspapers get gobbled up by large companies, the demands on them to turn a profit increase. While 30 years ago it was normal for a major newspaper to maintain a 5% profit margin, now the bosses insist on a 20% margin or they take a chainsaw to the employee roster.
Library Diva (which by the way I love that name :) - Americans are fortunate to have the rights we do, but I think we risk taking them for granted. We have seen instances where rights of free expression have been sacrificed in the name of other interests, particularly security.
ReplyDeleteDerek- I think you could take Berlusconi's reelection as a sign of at least ambivalence on the part of the Italian people with regard to the government's "control" of the media. This issue is not unique to Italy either; the English royal family had a rich history of keeping its dirty laundry out of the media. Your point about Western Europe being more willing to restrict is important to remember. The foundations of the federal government of the United States were unique at the time; European countries' foundations are different, therefore the priorities are also different.
Thanks for explaining the newspaper situation too. I know newspaper readership has been in decline, but I was unfamiliar with how newspapers are trying to adapt and survive.